Getting Started Again

I started a new book today.

Which got me thinking about first drafts.  I've started exactly five.  I've finished exactly two.

But the thing with those two that I've finished is that there were LOTS of stops and starts along the way.  The first one that I finished was the book now know as BANDIA, and it was really the third version  of a book I tried to write many, many times, over many, many years.  Finally something clicked, but not before I got distracted by a shiny new idea that would become SPIES & PREJUDICE.  I got fifty pages into that one before I set it aside to finish BANDIA.

But then we sold SPIES off of those same fifty pages, and I HAD to finish.  So I did.  In eight weeks.  Which surprised even me.  That experience gave me a great deal of confidence.  I can write another book.  I might even be able to write a lot more of them.  And hey, if I can write a book in eight weeks, I should be able to churn out two or three a year, right?

Um, no.  Since finishing the first draft of SPIES, I've written exactly 10K words on one project, 350 words on another, and 2500 words on this new one.  Yes, you read that right, I have THREE shiny new projects in beginning stages.  I absolutely intend to finish every one of them, but I'm not going to kill myself if I end the year with only one completed first draft by years end.

And since I'm under contract for the BANDIA sequel (which, ahem, is not one of the three), I'm pretty sure that's the one I'll have finished.

Still, it's fun to have new worlds and characters and plots to think about.  And who knows?  I might end the year with two shiny new manuscripts in hand.

I can dream anyway!